Early life Gallen-Kallela was born on 26 April 1865, in
Pori, to a
Swedish-speaking family. His father, Peter Wilhelm Gallén, worked as police chief, lawyer, and bank cashier. His mother was Anna Mathilda Wahlroos, daughter of the sea captain and shipowner Bror Mathias Wahlroos from Pori. The Gallén family traces its origins to Kallela farm in the parish of
Lemu, near
Turku. Gallen-Kallela was the third of what would become twelve siblings. His mother was an enthusiastic amateur painter who took an active interest in her son's artistic ambitions. Gallen-Kallela was raised in
Tyrvää, where the family had moved to in 1867 after his father had bought a farm there. Gallen-Kallela was educated at home until 1876, when he, at the age of 11, was sent to
Helsinki to study at the
Swedish Normal Lyceum, together with two of his brothers, because his father opposed his ambition to become a painter. He studied concurrently at the evening programme of the
Finnish Art Society's drawing school (1878–1881) and at the
School of Arts and Crafts (1880–1881). After completing his studies at the lyceum, he began full-time studies at the Finnish Art Society's drawing school in autumn 1881, receiving private instruction from Sigrid August Keinänen (1881–1882) and
Albert Edelfelt (1883–1884), and later studied privately under
Adolf von Becker (1882–1884). Between 1911 and 1913, he designed and built a studio and house for his family at
Tarvaspää, approximately 10 km northwest of the centre of Helsinki.
Finnish Civil War , 1920 The family moved back from Tarvaspää to Kalela in 1915 to escape the turmoil of the
First World War. In 1918, Gallen-Kallela and his son Jorma took part in the fighting at the front of the
Finnish Civil War. When the regent, General
Mannerheim, heard about that, he invited Gallen-Kallela to design the flags, official decorations and uniforms for the newly independent Finland. For the
flag, Gallen-Kallela proposed a white-blue cross flag, with colors inverted (white cross on blue), but it was considered too similar to the
Swedish flag and particularly the era's
Greek flag. In 1919, he was appointed
aide-de-camp to Mannerheim. In 1920, he made an agreement with the publishing company
WSOY for the eventual publication of
Great Kalevala, with the less decorative
Koru-Kalevala being published first in 1922. He was granted a professorship in 1919, and from 1919 to 1931 he was the Vice-Chairman of the Kalevala Society.
New Mexico, later life, and death in front of his fresco version of The Defense of the Sampo, 1928 In December 1923, he moved to the
United States, where his family followed him in autumn 1924. He first spent time in
Chicago, and an exhibition of his work toured several cities. In Chicago, he was impressed by Native American art and moved to
Taos, New Mexico, at the
art colony there to study it further. During his time in the United States, he began sketching out the
Great Kalevala in much more detail. In May 1926, the family returned to Finland. In 1924, Gallen-Kallela had published
Kallela-kirja. 1. Iltapuhde-jutelmia, which was translated into Swedish by Bertel Gripenberg in 1932. In 1928, together with his son Jorma he painted the
Kalevala frescoes at the lobby of the
National Museum of Finland. In 1930, he made an agreement to paint a gigantic fresco for the bank
Kansallis-Osake-Pankki, but on 7 March 1931, while returning from a lecture in
Copenhagen, he suddenly died of
pneumonia in
Stockholm. ==Legacy==